Griffin’s Trial in Ring, Not Court : Boxing: U.S. light-heavyweight threatens suit, gets another shot in Olympic boxoffs.

Lawyers, who have had an impact on the U.S. Olympic track and field trials because of the Butch Reynolds case, have also helped change the course of the U.S. boxing trials.

Montell Griffin, a Studio City light-heavyweight who reached the Olympic trials tournament final June 14 but was not chosen to compete in this weekend’s Olympic boxoffs, is back in the competition.

After his Los Angeles attorney, Mitchell Stein, threatened USA Boxing with a lawsuit, the U.S. amateur boxing governing body agreed to permit a “pre-boxoff boxoff” Tuesday at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., between Griffin and Terry McGroom of Chicago.

Griffin won a 2-1 decision over McGroom, which put Griffin in the boxoffs against Jeremy Williams, the Long Beach boxer who defeated him in the trials tournament title match at Worcester, Mass.

In the boxoffs, Friday through Sunday, each of the trials champions in the 12 weight classes must defeat their “most noteworthy challenger” once to make the Olympic team. Challengers must defeat the trials champions twice to make the team.

Griffin was angry that the five-man boxoff selection committee initially chose McGroom to meet Williams in Phoenix because Griffin beat McGroom in the trials semifinals on a decision. At the time, it was said McGroom was picked because his style was more likely to be effective in the Olympic tournament.

“Montell did what any normal American who felt he’d been treated unfairly would do--he went to a lawyer,” Stein said.

“I presented our case to the USA Boxing people over the phone, to their lawyer, Paul Konnor, and to Bruce Mathis (the federation’s competition director), and told them I felt their treatment of Montell was unfair, that we were prepared to file suit in federal court against them.

“They were very understanding, and Konnor offered us, as a solution, the pre-boxoff boxoff with McGroom.”

Griffin, 22, only recently achieved national prominence in amateur boxing. He grew up in Chicago and was taught to box by his father, who died when Griffin was 12.

He recently returned to boxing, and moved to Southern California, first to Midway City, then to Studio City. He has no full-time trainer, and says he’s largely self-taught in boxing, still relying on much of what he learned from his father.

He won the U.S. championships in February, clinching a bid to the Olympic trials.

At 5 feet 7, he boxes out of a crouch and his forte is defense.

“I’m known as a guy who slips a lot of punches,” he said Wednesday, upon arriving in Phoenix. “So how could they give (Jeremy) Williams a 34-17 decision over me, then pick a guy for the boxoff who I beat the day before?”